in this talk, lumen prize-winning artist duo ania catherine and dejha ti, known as operator, speak about their approach to performance and experiential art on the blockchain illustrated through their privacy collection—with a specific focus on privacy portraits (lot 01). privacy portraits are anonymized collector portraits created live through a durational performance installation during proof of people in london (july 2022). the artists contextualize the portraits within the history of their larger collection in addition to making an announcement on what is to come.

ania catherine and dejha ti are an award-winning experiential artist duo who founded their collaborative art practice, known as operator, in 2016. referred to as «the two critical contemporary voices on digital art’s international stages» (clot magazine) and «lgbt power couple» (flaunt), their expertise collide in large-scale conceptual works recognizable for their signature poetic approach to technology. rooted in the understanding that immersion is not only a physical state but also an emotional one, their approach employs nuance in scale, producing a feeling instead of a spectacle. ti’s background as an immersive artist and hci technologist, and catherine’s as an established choreographer, performance artist and gender scholar make for a uniquely medium-fluent output–bringing together environments, technology and the body.

operator has been awarded the lumen prize (immersive environments), adc award (gold cube), s+t+arts prize (honorary mention), and mediafutures (a european commission funded programme). they’ve spoken and appeared in bbc click, bloomberg art+technology, christie’s art+tech summit, scad museum of art, mit open doc lab, ars electronica, art basel, francisco carolinum, cadaf, and mocda. originally from los angeles and currently based in berlin. Ω